Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to image processing and, in particular, to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium that are suitably used to associate positions between images.
Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, in order to use medical images captured in a plurality of modalities or medical images captured at different times and dates, in different body orientation, or in different imaging modes, for making a diagnosis, it is important to associate target points within a subject between the medical images. Some target points can be associated automatically through image processing while the others cannot be easily associated automatically due to a difference in the modality or deformation of the subject. Therefore, doctors typically carry out an association operation while visually checking the images.
To achieve a similar purpose, there has been proposed a technique for displaying a plurality of images with their positions being adjusted. Here, to realize position adjustment with higher accuracy, there has been often employed a method of acquiring corresponding points which a user has visually associated with each other, and using the corresponding points in the position adjustment process. Thus, the accuracy of position adjustment varies depending on the accuracy of association.
Therefore, a technique for supporting an association operation is discussed. According to the technique, a target point is pointed out on one image (hereinafter, a reference image), and another image (hereinafter, a target image) is searched for the target point. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-212680 discusses a technique of displaying an estimated position of a target point with being superimposed on a target image. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-198722 discusses a technique of displaying the existence probability distribution of a target point with being superimposed on a target image. However, these techniques respectively discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-212680 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-198722 have shortcomings in that the appropriateness of the corresponding points input by the user cannot be evaluated.